On October 31, 1945, 44-year-old White male Bill “William” Lakanen, a Wyoming Game and Fish agent based out of Rawliens, was shot and killed in the Sierra Madre mountains southwest of Rawlins while working in the line of duty with fellow warden Don Simpson. The 44-year-old Game Warden was investigating reports of illegal beaver hunting when both wardens were ambushed and fatally shot near Nugget Gulch/Jim Creek.
Accounts identify the prime suspect as Johann Malten, a German-born m
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